Expand your taste in music. Based in Beijing, China.
This snazzy 7-inch features two Israeli bands, Les Dynamites and Radio Trip, who mix the best of hipster-inflected bellydance music, surf, funk and psych with Greek, North African, Yemenite and Mizrahi styles of music. Worth donning a fez and smoking a hookah pipe for.
A fascinating release from our friends at Antonovka Records. From their Bandcamp website:
“Nagaybaks are an ethnic group that descends from the Christian Tatars and shares the same self-name with them — “Kreshenner”, which means “Baptized Ones”. There are about 10 thousand Nagaybaks in total, they live primarily in the Nagaybaksky district of the Chelyabinsk region, in the South Ural area.
In the Russian empire the Nagaybaks belonged to the Cossack estate. Many of their villages were named after European settlements, at which the Nagaybaks distinguished themselves in the battles.
Fershampenuaz is the capital of the Nagaybak district, it got its name after the commune of Fère-Champenoise in France.
“Sak-Sok” is the name of an old myth. The ensemble members, from left to right on album cover photo:
Klavdia Korsakova: vocals
Anna Stepanova: vocals
Roza Leontyeva: vocals
Lidia Mukaeva (leader): vocals
Nina Salova: vocals
Radik Sagittinov (not on the photo): button accordion”
Our dear friend Raffaele Pezzella is not only a label empresario of note, whose works are featured here frequently due to the incredibly high quality – he is also an amazing composer.
Interdimensional is bleak and heavy, with heavy drones throughout. If you like artists like Lustmord, this will appeal to you.
Though I don’t think this banger will be available as a digital download (my friends at Wewantsounds will be happy to clarify this), Sharayet El Disco is going to be an indispensable part of your world disco collection! From the label’s Bandcamp site:
“Wewantsounds is delighted to release ‘Sharayet el Disco’ a selection of Egyptian 80s Disco and Boogie tracks curated by Egyptian DJ Disco Arabesquo from his vast collection of cassettes. Most tracks have never been released on any other format and are making their vinyl debut with this set. A journey through the funky sound of 80s Egypt, Sharayet El Disco (which can be translated by “Disco Cassettes”) features Simone, Ammar El Sherei and more obscure names from Cairo‘s cassette culture. The audio has been remastered for vinyl by David Hachour at Colorsound Studio in Paris and features artwork by young Egyptian graphic designer Heba Tarek.”
A side note – the packaging looks absolutely stunning, and judging by quality of the promotional tracks I’m listening to, the remastering is stellar. Of particular interest is Dr. Ezat Abou Ouf & el four M’s track Gonoun El Disco. It’s a combination of ABBA and cuts from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack imbued with the spirit of 1970s Cairo’s dancefloors.
Read more about the release at the label’s official website here.
If you can believe it, this Czech EP was recorded by a 17-year-old kid who has a profound appreciation for bedroom pop, new wave and indie. He’s quite a decent storyteller, and despite the lo-fi production, there’s a lot of charm in this album.
In honor of Catholic and Protestant Good Friday, we won’t be posting today. Instead, we leave you today with appropriate music by an absolute legend, Johnny Cash.
What a gem this one is from our friends at The Church of the Noisy Goat Records. I’ll let them explain the work here:
“Listen to the album Der Golem (2012) continuing the series of rarities re-released by this net-label covering the beginning of the very rich career of the masterful Japanese composer and improviser mora-tau aka Takenori Iwasaki who occupies a prestigious place in ours and in the best and most varied virtual shelves of Bandcamp because I know that we love to collect unusual music and totally free from aesthetic shackles.
Conceived as a subjective soundtrack for the eponymous 1920 German horror film “Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam” directed by Paul Wegener and Carl Boese this is an album that demonstrates the first and contagious investigations of this internationally famous artist. in the field of Dark Ambient. Scattered sounds with points of silence lead the listener to appreciate the sometimes tense and sometimes comforting soundscapes. An example that cannot be missed in the collection of lovers of good soundscape music.”
There is a large outpouring of grief over the war from many artists I know on both sides. My friend Jos Smolders has made his contribution as well. From his Bandcamp site:
“A small album of improvisations that I recorded to express my disgust about the war in Ukraine. All of the money I receive from sales will be donated to organizations that help the Ukrainian people.
I hardly ever infuse my music with politics, but this feels different. Please buy a copy of the album and help those poor people.
The music was produced primarily with Blippoo and electric guitar.”
Though it’s been four years, the loss of Jóhann Jóhannsson due to an overdose has left a massive hole in contemporary classical music, drone, experimental music, post-rock and so many other genres his work touched on.
This opus, performed by the legendary Paul Hillier and backed my ACME, is as close to heaven as some of us might ever get. The vocals are haunting, mournful, but sound totally in place since we begin the Western Holy Week as celebrated by Catholics and non-apostolic churches. Bleak and beautiful.
Don Leisure is a Cardiff based producer and DJ whose latest work, dedicated to his legendary uncle, the Bollywood actor Nasser ‘Shaboo’ Bharwani, left me wondering how I didn’t hear about him before. From his Bandcamp website:
“‘Shaboo Strikes Back‘ is a much-awaited sequel to the 2017 smash, and again features a modest 25 tracks. Psychedelic fuzzy samples and phat beats aplenty, Don Leisure once again takes us on a far-out trip across soundscapes. A real tapestry of flavours, from jazz to reggae, and from the soulful to the spiritual, this time round he’s invited a few special guests to join him on his travels – most notably Welsh legend Gruff Rhys provides the vocals on ‘Neon Drizzle (Hotel Shaboo)’, whilst acclaimed multi-instrumentalist Angel Bat Dawid and Jazzman-signed harpist Amanda Whiting lend their talents to ‘All Praises Due’. There is even a special cameo appearance from his young daughter, (aka Shaboo’s great-niece!), Naima, on ‘Naima’s Dream’.”